Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

Nikola Sarić painted this contemporary image (2017) as part of a cycle of the mysteries of the life of Christ. It appears to be a combination of the Annunciation and the Visitation, but since it is entitled The Incarnation of Christ, we have to give precedence to the Annunciation when that first and great mystery took place. The key elements are all there: the Angel with the staff indicating that he is an emissary; Mary with open, receptive hands; the hand of God the Father appearing from above, sending the Holy Spirit to overshadow Mary; the face of Christ in Mary's womb to indicate the hidden Word made flesh. 

Since Gabriel had alluded to Elizabeth and her pregnancy, and Elizabeth was the first to call Mary "Mother," it is fitting that she be included as a witness of Mary's motherhood from its first instant.

Here is a fascinating interview with the artist, a young Serbian-German whose life was changed by the unexpected encounter with Byzantine icons:

Interview with Nikola Saric from Orthodoxie.com.

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

This Thursday (October 22) is the feast of St John Paul II, for whom this 15th century Annunciation (the would have been quite familiar, since it is from the Holy Cross Chapel in Wawel Cathedral (Kraków, Poland). 
By Stanisław Durink, the Annunciation is part of a triptych of Our Lady of Sorrows, and features Gabriel actually reading the divine message, "Ave Gratia Plena" (the only words legible on the scroll he has open in his hands). The importance of the message may be construed from the three wax seals that hang down from it (a hint of the Trinity?).

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

This lovely Annunciation is part of a German altarpiece by the "Master of the Thalheim Altar"
(Stuttgart, Wurttemberg State Museum). It is matched by an equally charming Visitation. Beneath, Christ is depicted with the Apostles.

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

Flash forward a few centuries from last week.
This week's Annunciation is by a 20th century Argentine as part of a reaction to the "Cubist" movement in art. Modernist painter Alfredo Guttero and others attempted to restore key of artistic tradition. It is fitting that an Annunciation would be a statement of such a retrieval of tradition.